Chapter 19: The Recipe for Thermal Underwear

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“Clack!”

The pickaxe struck down, and the once solid frozen earth beneath his feet surprisingly softened immediately.

[Ice +1]

Liu Hen’s heart stirred. He could actually gather ice blocks even from the soil?

That was fantastic. He had worried before that there might be no solidified ice nearby, but now there was no need to fret.

He continued swinging the Universal Pickaxe, and a small patch of soil beneath him disappeared, forming a shallow pit.

[Soil +10]

With every strike, a small section of the frozen earth vanished before his eyes, and some ice blocks were gathered as well.

However, soon the ice inventory was full. From then on, every swing yielded ten blocks of soil plus a heap of dirty ice shards.

When a pit approximately one meter long and wide and ten centimeters deep had formed, even the last empty backpack slot was filled.

Liu Hen then emptied and discarded all the soil. Next, he loaded the six hundred pieces of wood he had saved into the bonfire’s fuel chamber, freeing up space.

This instantly added six thousand minutes to the burn time. Combined with the previous four hundred pieces, even after more than half an hour, the remaining burn time was nearly ten thousand minutes.

That was over one hundred and sixty hours.

He wouldn’t have to worry about the bonfire going out for several days.

At this moment, the nearby monsters seemed somewhat calmer, but fearing provoking those dark creatures again, Liu Hen abandoned the risky method of throwing items to kill the monsters and escape.

That approach was too dangerous because the monsters were not entirely without ranged attacks.

Some mutated monsters possessed ranged abilities, though those were rare.

Moreover, the bonfire’s glow stood out starkly in the darkness. Currently, only four-armed monsters were visible, but if six-armed or even mutated eight-armed monsters were attracted, it would be disastrous.

Digging a tunnel was safer.

“I’ll treat this as an escape passage. Later I can seal this exit and only break through if necessary,” Liu Hen reassured himself.

“Clack, clack, clack…”

As he swung the Universal Pickaxe continuously, the pit visibly deepened.

To allow room to turn his body, he dug the pit to be one meter wide and two meters long.

Every twenty seconds, the tunnel extended downward by ten centimeters, meaning thirty centimeters per minute.

Even with the occasional pause to discard soil and clear space, after fifteen minutes, the pit was already three meters deep.

This was partly because there was no iron ore here; otherwise, digging would have slowed considerably.

After discarding more soil, Liu Hen returned into the pit and began digging horizontally, his body gradually disappearing into the opening.

“If there’s danger, just jump down,” he said to the small black stone beside him.

“Yes, my lord,” the black stone at the bonfire’s edge nodded.

She trembled inside as she watched the steadily increasing number of monsters nearby.

Because the bonfire’s light was constant and the monsters usually wandered everywhere, any other monsters passing by would be attracted by the glow.

Thus, more and more monsters gathered. Without firearms, it was impossible to kill them by throwing stones.

Especially since there were no stones here, only soil—frozen soil at that—which was too weak to kill even four-armed monsters, only possibly two-armed ones.

This method would only enrage the monsters again, and if they self-destructed, it would be tragic.

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‘Luckily my lord has this miraculous digging skill, or we’d be doomed!’ she silently rejoiced, growing ever more reverent of her master.

Time passed slowly.

Even when hitting stone, the mining speed was the same as for soil: ten blocks per strike, so progress did not slow.

Thus, the tunnel extended roughly twelve meters toward the cave shelter every hour.

The soil and stone piles outside also grew larger, but the monsters would climb these piles as well, so long as they kept over five meters away.

After ten hours, it was deep into the night.

Liu Hen, starving with his stomach pressing against his back, returned outside and was suddenly chilled to the point where his lower body shivered uncontrollably in the biting wind.

‘Damn… Could the outside temperature really have dropped to minus fifty degrees?’ he thought with a chill and looked at the black stone.

Fortunately, since she was beside the bonfire, she wasn’t frozen stiff.

He discarded the collected stones again and was about to cook some tree-bark porridge when suddenly a mutated monster covered entirely with heads crawled onto the soil pile.

“My lord, it’s a mutated monster…” the little black stone’s face changed drastically.

“Come inside quickly!”

Liu Hen hurriedly pulled her into the tunnel.

At that moment, the over three-meter-tall, multi-headed monster suddenly shot out one of its heads.

‘What the hell, a Flying Head Barbarian?!’

He quickly extinguished the bonfire and ducked sharply into the pit.

“Boom—”

A massive explosion roared outside, and the gathered monsters, now numbering three to four hundred, erupted in frenzy.

Without the bonfire’s light to repel them, they recklessly surged forward.

Inside the tunnel, Liu Hen frantically moved with the little black stone, swinging the Universal Pickaxe wildly to dig overhead.

“Crash, crash…”

As he dug, unstable soil and rocks fell, blocking the path behind them and trapping the monsters that leapt into the pit.

After advancing fifty or sixty meters continuously, the monsters were finally stopped by a tunnel collapse.

‘Originally, I planned to use this as one of the escape routes—plans never go as expected!’ Liu Hen regretted.

‘But at least we’re safe now. I just need to dig the tunnel under the cave shelter to get out.’

Because the cave dwellers had long survived in darkness, their eyes adapted to the dark, allowing them to barely see outlines within ten meters even underground.

Since the entrance was sealed by collapsed debris, no oxygen entered—

And Liu Hen wasn’t sure if his bonfire would consume oxygen, so he dared not light it.

“Keep watch behind me, but don’t stray too far.”

He ordered the little black stone and continued digging.

Unable to go outside, he simply tossed the excavated soil and rocks behind him.

Though starving, he dared not stop, as oxygen inside the tunnel was dwindling, and he was beginning to feel breathless.

After about eight more hours, estimating their position, he began digging upward.

The entrance was much lower than the cave shelter, so he dug upward seven or eight meters at once and made several horizontal tunnels before finally reaching the cave shelter.

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Altogether, it took at least twenty hours to return to the cave shelter.

‘Damn… I’m exhausted!’

Back inside, Liu Hen gasped for air, having nearly fainted from lack of oxygen underground.

After bringing the little black stone inside, he didn’t immediately relight the bonfire but hurried to the cave entrance and used the free-building feature to seal the opening.

Outside were swarming monsters; if the bonfire was lit, they would inevitably be drawn over.

Though the cave might block them, the open-air defenses might not hold.

Especially with a mutated monster among them, whose explosive flying heads packed destructive power.

He didn’t want the defense he had painstakingly built destroyed by those monsters.

During the sealing process, the biting cold wind buffeted him.

Though it was nearly early night, temperatures had not risen at all, likely plunging to minus sixty degrees.

His upper body was protected by bark thermal clothing and remained fine, but his lower body was almost numb from the cold.

Finally, the entrance was sealed, leaving only a ventilation crack.

He then brought the little black stone to the back of the cave, where a widened area allowed him to take out and light the bonfire.

“Whoosh…”

Flames shot up over a meter, dispelling darkness and bringing warmth.

A strong sense of security washed over him. Exhausted and sleepy, Liu Hen wished he could just sleep immediately.

But he held back and quickly began cooking food.

He needed to eat well first to regain strength.

Throughout, the little black stone obediently crouched nearby, quietly warming herself by the fire without any unnecessary movements.

A minute later, tree-bark porridge was ready.

Liu Hen collected it, drank two and a half jin himself, and saved half a jin for the little black stone.

“Thank you, my lord.”

This time, she didn’t refuse but gently took the large bowl and began eating.

‘Right, the workbench…’

Having eaten his fill, Liu Hen quickly stood and went to the workbench.

After over twenty hours, the workbench had been upgraded to level three.

Eagerly, he opened the crafting interface and saw new recipes had appeared.

[Warm Pants Recipe: Pants with thermal insulation; size selectable during crafting; materials required: three pieces of bark (starter), one magic crystal.]

‘Pants? Perfect!’

Liu Hen rejoiced. If all went well, these would be a set with the thermal jacket.

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